Category Archives: Software

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Google Docs v Office Live Workspace

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If you have questions about the differences between Google Docs and Office Live Workspace check out this Google Docs Logopost from Inter-Alia, which compares the two. It looks like there are some significant differences between the two. For example,

First, unlike Google Docs, you aren’t actually working on documents inside the browser — you are using the Microsoft Office products installed on your computer. So when you log into your workspace and click New Word Document, MS Word opens up a new document. When you save it, the document is automatically deposited on your workspace online. Because you aren’t working on documents online, that means you can’t work on a document at the same time as others with whom you are sharing it — for them, the document will appear as “checked out.”

I have not played around with Office Live Workspace at all and I have played around with Google Docs only a little bit. However, I can say that I was up and running with Google Docs in about 30 seconds. Plus, Google Docs, just like everything else that Google makes, worked simply and without any problems. I can’t remember the last time anyone said that about any Microsoft Product.

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Microsoft Outlook Utilities

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TechHitA while back a reader asked me if I knew of a solution that allowed him to file his emails from Outlook to a folder on his hard drive. I use Speedfiler and like it quite a lot. However, it files messages only in Outlook. That did not solve the reader’s problem. I was unable to help him. However, he found a solution on his own.

He is using MessageSave by TechHit.com. According to the website, MessageSave allows you to:

Backup, archive, process, share and save Outlook email messages as individual files with MessageSave for Outlook. MessageSave is a great solution for email data retention, backup, archiving, sharing and a lot more.

In checking out MessageSave, I saw that TechHit has several utilities that integrate with Outlook to make the program work better. For example, SimplyFile works like SpeedFiler to help you file your messages within Outlook; EZDetach helps you manage your attachments; and OutTwit allows you to integrate Twitter with Outlook.

If you have ever thought, “I wish Outlook let me . . .,” you should check out TechHit and see if they have solved your problem for you.

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Negotiating a SLA for SaaS

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If you are considering using a SaaS (Software as a Service) solution, John Heckman has some great advice on negotiating a Service Level Agreement. His post includes several tips on provisions to try to get included in the agreement, including:

– Specify levels for uptime, response time, support coverage, and escalation of issues (you don’t want to get stuck on hold with first-level support for hours)
– Is there a provision to have a backup of the data on a local server? This is the reverse of the usual “Internet Backup” scheme – here your data is on the internet and your backup is local, not the other way around.

Some of his best advice comes at the end of his post, however, where he points out that now is the time to negotiate for these provisions:

You can be almost guaranteed that very few, if any, of these types of provisions are contained in a standard SLA. As always, Read the Fine Print!! Companies are trying to push everybody to SaaS formats (much more profitable for them), so right now it is a buyers’ market.

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Another Great Way to Use Adobe Acrobat

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AdobeI believe that Adobe Acrobat is one of the most under used programs that attorneys have. Many, if not most, attorneys have a copy of it on their computer. Yet, almost all of them use it for only two purposes: creating a PDF and reading a PDF that someone else sent them. Acrobat is much more powerful than that, however. I have written before about some of my favorite Acrobat tools.  You can also find several other posts relating to Acrobat by clicking the Acrobat category in the sidebar.

Today I want to point you toward a post from Ernie the Attorney on his PDF for Lawyers Blog. In the post, Ernie explains that he does not use paper in his depositions and that, instead, he refers to his electronic copies of the documents. He explains:

I have my deposition notes set up in an outline on my computer.  When I get to a place that calls for me to talk about a certain document I inform my opposing counsel what the document bates-number is, and ask him to show it to the witness.  I have all the documents bookmarked in Acrobat.  It takes me about 3 seconds to get to the document, and I make good use of the time it takes my opponent to pull the document and show it to the witness.  I have notes superimposed on the PDF and I examine those and get ready to frame my questions.  At the end of the deposition I don’t offer any documents as exhibits.  If opposing counsel asks me why I’m not doing that I tell him that the bates-numbers (which I announced on the record before starting my questions about each document) constitute sufficient reference.

If I’m attending a deposition it’s even easier.  When a document is offered I ask what the bates-number is and I just pull it up, much more quickly than if I were to wait for it to be handed over.  Plus I have my PDF notes superimposed on my copy which helps me quickly figure out the relevance of the document to my theory of the case.   And of course I can add more notes on the fly if I want to.  I also bookmark the document and indent it under a main bookmark labelled for the deposition in question.  So when the deposition is over I have a listing of all the documents that were referenced in that meeting.

I think that this is a great way to use Acrobat. Not only does it allow you to access your documents easily and quickly. Additionally, and perhaps most importantly, it also keeps all of your notes with respect to a particular document in one location. As an added benefit, all of those notes are fully searchable.

Although I have not entirely abandoned paper at my depositions, I do use Acrobat to keep notes on my documents and to organize them. I have found that the PDF Package available in Acrobat 8 is a great way to package all of my deposition exhibits together in a single location.

If you are are using Acrobat only to read or create PDFs, I urge you to start exploring the other options that are available to you.

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My Freedom GPS and TomTom Maps: I’d Be Lost Without Them

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I have written before about how much I like the combination of my Freedom Keychain GPS and TomTom Maps. Until this last week, however, all that I had really done with the system was play around with it. On vacation, however, I had the opportunity to use it in several situations. In each situation, the system came through with flying colors.

Freedom GPSThe first situation that I had the opportunity to use the GPS was on the interstate between Indianapolis and Cincinnati. While traveling through Indianapolis, we saw a message that said that there had been an accident on I-74 and to consider alternative routes.  Given that traffic had not been too bad until then (it was night by the time we hit Indy) we decided to continue on. Once we got on 74, however, the message had changed. Now, the message was warning that the road was closed ahead. Sure enough, up ahead, we could see brake lights ahead, where traffic was stopped.

I indicated that there was a roadblock ahead and that we needed an alternate route. The software instructed us to exit at the next exit (which was fortunately before the stopped traffic) and then routed us down a frontage road and through a small town, before taking us back to the interstate. Along the way, we saw a very long line of cars just parked on the interstate. Had we not navigated around the area, we wouldTomTom Navigator 6 have set on the interstate for probably hours. As it was, our detour added 6 minutes to our trip.

Further, if I did not have the GPS, we would never have found our way back to the interstate in any reasonable length of time. All in all, it was a huge time saver for us. Plus, it was unbelievably simple to use.

When we arrived at our destination, I had to stop at the rental office to pick up keys to our cabin as well as directions. Unfortunately, the map that the rental office provided was poorly designed, not to scale, and difficult to follow. Fortunately, however, all that I had to do was enter the address in my GPS and it led me to the front door of the cabin. Without the GPS, however, we would likely have wandered around the mountain for quite a while looking for the cabin.

In sum,  I love the convenience of being able to carry the GPS with me at all times. I also love the simple interface provided by the TomTom software. The maps are accurate and easy to use. I would recommend this set up to anyone who uses a compatible device.

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Google Docs Bar

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Do you use Google Docs? If so, you might want to check out the Google Docs Bar for Firefox.

According to the extension website,

gDocsBar is a sidebar extension for firefox, a perfect companion for Google Docs.

With gDocsBar, you can drag and drop multiple files into the sidebar to upload documents.

You can search and filter documents right from the sidebar.

Your Gmail credentials are sent to Google directly over SSL. Your passwords are stored in Firefox Password Manager.

If you use Google Docs, this extension seems like a great idea.

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Synching Your Google Calendar

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Affinity Law Office Technology Blog reveals that Google has released an update allowing you to sync your Google Calendar with Microsoft Outlook. You can enable full bidirectional sync between both calendars or you can sync only from either Google Calendar or Microsoft Outlook.

If you have been looking for a solution to share your Microsoft Outlook Calendar without using Exchange Server, this may be the solution for you. Simply enable bidirectional sync with a Google Calendar and give your assistant access to the Google Calendar.

To get started with setting up your calendar sync, start here.

Don’t forget, you can also access and add to your Google Calendar from your mobile phone. Go here, to find out more information about that.

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Freedom 2000 GPS and TomTom Navigator 6: A Great Combination

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For quite a while I have wanted a GPS. This desire comes not from the fact that I tend to get lost, but instead from the fact that I think they are really cool. One drawback was that I really didn’t want to have to keep track of another device and have to decide whether to take it with me everyday or leave it at home. Despite the coolness factor, it seemed like a bit of a hassle.

For my birthday, however, I recently received the most hassle free GPS I can imagine. It isFreedom 2000 GPS the Freedom Keychain GPS 2000. This device is only the GPS receiver. To use it, you must connect it to your Treo via Bluetooth. Also, the device comes with no maps. You have to decide on your own what maps you wish to use.

What makes the Freedom absolutely hassle free is the fact that it is tiny (it weighs .77 oz). In fact, it is smaller than the key fob for my wife’s car. It charges via a mini USB port (all devices should have to do this) and it comes with a car charger. The battery life is 9 hours and my use of it shows that this is likely the case.

TomTom Navigator 6To be able to get around, I need more than the GPS, however, I also need the software that goes with with it. The map data is not cheap. However it is available from a variety of companies, most of which produce versions compatible with a Treo. In my case, I first tried DeLorme’s Street Atlas USA. After trying it for a few days, I didn’t like the interface that it had with my Treo. Thus, I returned it, and bought TomTom Navigator 6.

I love this software. It was easy to install and it works flawlessly on my Treo. Also, it integrated easily with the Freedom GPS and I have had no connection problems between the two devices at all.

The aspect about this solution that I love the most is that I have a full GPS solution, yet the only additional thing that I am carrying with me is a key fob. How great is that.

I bought my copy of Navigator 6 from Amazon and saved a few bucks over the price direct from TomTom.

I plan on doing a more in depth review of the Navigator software later. In the meantime, you can find a great review on the Freedom GPS at Treonauts. You can find a review of the earlier version of the Freedom at treocentral.

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Practicing Law Efficiently Means Using the Right Tools

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I was in court today and I witnessed another attorney call his office to speak to his assistant. He instructed his assistant to contact another attorney in the office who had authored an initial draft of a brief. The assistant was to get two things from the other attorney that were referenced in the draft: (1) a portion of a transcript, and (2) a document.

What I found amusing was that in the amount of time that the attorney spent on the telephone telling his assistant what he wanted, I could have probably found the sameCaseMap information in one of my files. This is because I keep all of my files paperless and I use the CaseMap suite of programs to manage my documents, facts, and transcripts.

Finding information in a transcript is as easy as looking for the relevant words. Similarly, finding a document is as easy as searching for any number of fields including the author, recipient, date, or relevant information.

I am not saying that you have to use the same programs that I use. There are a variety of programs available to help you manage your documents, transcripts, and other case information. The programs include programs such as Lexis-Nexis Front Office, Summation, Concordance, iConect, JFS Litigator’s Notebook, and LiveNote.

The important point is that you should be using some program to keep your information organized and available to you at a moment’s notice.

Not only with this make you more efficient, it also means that you won’t be using time of your assistant and other attorneys to track down information.

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Thanks Rick!

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I was working with some documents in Adobe Acrobat and I realized that I needed to reduce the page sizes on some document and I was not sure how to best do it. Fortunately, Rick Borstein had the answer I needed. I hopped over to Rick’s Blog Acrobat for Legal Professionals and after a quick search of his blog, I had a solution to my problem.

This solution emphasizes one of the great features of Rick’s blog. He posts about solutions to real world problems that attorneys might encounter during their workday.  If you are trying to solve a problem in Acrobat, I recommend that you start first with Rick’s blog, before you start searching for solutions elsewhere.